Senior officials of the Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting with their IICA counterparts to work on the Agricultural Sector Investment Plan.

After five months of joint work under the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Development (MARNDR), Haiti at last has an Agricultural Sector Investment Plan. The main thrust of the plan - whose implementation will cost US$790 million - was endorsed at a meeting of donors held in the Dominican Republic in June.

The plan establishes the roles of the government, the private sector and the group of donors, as well as the activities that will be carried out to increase agricultural production and guarantee food security.

Once the donors had endorsed the plan, Haiti requested and received US$35 million in funds from the Global Agriculture Food Security Program. The formulation of the plan was a precondition for the granting of that first donation.

The MARNDR worked with IICA and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in preparing the document. The World Bank, IDB and the Departments of State and Agriculture of the United States also collaborated in the preparation of the plan. The Institute assisted with the identification of the issues, the structuring of the costs for each activity and risk analyses, and with the collection and analysis of the statistics available.

The plan establishes the need for the government to enhance its capacity to offer services to entrepreneurs and farmers. It also provides guidelines for the activities in which the private sector should invest to increase production, possibly in partnership with the public sector.

The document underscores the importance of investing in the agricultural infrastructure, such as irrigation systems, rural roads and markets; and in services like agricultural health, credit, and insurance, and aspects related to the production of milk, basic grains, and vegetables.

Each donor chooses specific activities in which to invest and the government guarantees that resources will not be diverted toward other activities.

After the earthquake, the Emergency Agricultural Sector Program was created for the reconstruction of the agricultural sector. Nevertheless, both the MARNDR and the group of donors and the private sector recognized the need to focus cooperation on longer-term initiatives, leading to the drafting of the medium-term investment plan.

More information: alfredo.mena@iica.int